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THE MAGAZINE ART & PATRIMOINE Sherlock Holmeses of art In the Musée du Louvre, visitors to the south wing stroll around completely unaware that in the basement, in laboratories barred to the general public, a number of researchers and extraordinary experts are busy investigating and tracking down the truth to determine the authenticity of objets d’art. Is the museum's Egyptian head in blue glass a fake? For eighty years, the Egyptologist community has had its doubts about the genuineness of this statue, acquired by the museum in 1923. To decide the answer once and for all, the scientists at the Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF) have used a jewel of technology: "Aglaé", the Grand Louvre’s elementary analysis accelerator, which can precisely analyse the chemical composition of any object without having to take a sample. "It's the only particle accelerator in the world entirely dedicated to the study of heritage," says Marie Lavandier, the centre's director. The Egyptian head, which could not be subjected to the removal of even the tiniest sample, was recently analysed with Aglaé. The accelerator, with its 25-metre barrel, bombards the object with ions, thus stimulating the material, which reacts and then emits X-rays containing the object's chemical record sheet. The composition of the glass reveals traces of arsenic and lead characteristic of objects made in… the 18th century! The verdict is announced: the work is a remarkable fake. A case solved with undeniable success by these dedicated art sleuths. In Greek mythology, Aglaea (Aglaé in French), the youngest of the three Graces, symbolises radiant beauty: the perfect name for C2RMF's jewel in the crown, one of the many cutting edge tools available to the centre's experts. 126 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 19 The C2RMF, created in 1998 when the research laboratories merged with the restoration department of the museums of France, now employs a hundred and sixty people divided between two sites: the restoration workshop in the Petite Ecurie du Roi facing the Château de Versailles, and the laboratory under the Palais du Louvre. "Our team contains a highly original range of professionals from all sorts of backgrounds – chemists, photographers, physicists, radiologists, optics specialists, archivists, computer scientists, restorers, curators, art historians and archaeologists –, thus enabling a multidisciplinary approach across the board serving France's museums," says the director. At the foot of the Louvre's venerable Pavillon de Flore, the laboratory lies hidden behind two doors worthy of a safe. The five thousand square metres of this underground haunt, divided into three levels under a vast glass roof, is a veritable hive: a dark room with walls seven metres high, a library, a series of rooms with small windows for the lab assistants, a control room where five people operate the particle accelerator, and a huge door leading to the Louvre's surrounding underground passage, used for moving art works around. Each year, thousands of objects pass through the scientists' hands. Ultra-sophisticated analysis techniques – including raking light, infrared, UV and radiography – can reveal the framework of a statue, the rough patches on a painting, Designed by architects Jérôme Brunet and Éric Saunier, the 5,000 square metre laboratory is divided into three levels under the Louvre's Pavillon de Flore.
ART & PATRIMOINE THE MAGAZINE N° 19 I GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL HD 127 © Georges Fessy
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